Stuffed Cabbage Strata

This is the infamous dinner where my husband posed the question "you thought about this when you were running?!" As you can see from my previous blog post about this dinner, my hubby was not a fan of it. Apparently he doesn't like cabbage. I loved the recipe and didn't think you could even taste the cabbage. For the record my hubby is a very picky eater and doesn't like veggies. He would rather eat some cheetos or a frozen pizza.

I made some slight modifications to this recipe that I will make mention of below.....

"Stuffed Cabbage" Strata (Found on Page 134 of the Biggest Loser Family Cookbook)

Ingredients:
Olive oil spray
8 pieces of bacon (I used the Kirkland low-sodium bacon-- turkey bacon would be great too!)
1 1/4 cups minced yellow onions
1 cup uncooked brown or white rice (I did't have rice so I used quinoa)
6 cups shredded cabbage
1  1/2 lbs ground chicken
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 cans no salt added tomato sauce (8 oz)
3/4 cup water
*hot sauce optional

Once I saw the ingredients I didn't really follow the cooking instructions. My bad.  I wasn't sure how much time I would have around dinner so I made this in the morning and put it in the fridge during the day and then 45 minutes before we ate I put my casserole dish in the oven @ 400 degrees. I actually had leftover quinoa from dinner the night before so I just added onions to it and heated it up in the microwave. I cooked the bacon in the microwave as well as heating up the water & tomato sauce. I cut a lot of corners!

The instructions listed below do not include my modifications.

Cooking instructions:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees- lightly spray your 8 X 8 baking dish with olive oil spray.

Cook the bacon until it is finished. Transfer the bacon to a separate dish. Discard all all but 1 TBSP of the bacon fat from you skillet.

Add onions & rice to the skillet and place over a medium heat until the onions are tender and rice is starting to brown. Should take 3-5 minutes.

Spread 3 cups of cabbage evenly on the bottom of your baking dish. Top with rice mixture, forming an even layer.

Add the ground chicken, salt & pepper to the skillet and place over a medium heat, cooking the chicken until it is no longer pink. Transfer the cooked chicken to the baking dish and layer evenly over the rice mixture.

Spread the remaining 3 cups of cabbage evenly over the layer of chicken.

Discard any liquid from your skillet and add your tomato sauce and water. Bring to a boil and spoon the sauce evenly over your casserole. Lay your bacon pieces evenly on top of the cabbage.

Cover your casserole with tin foil and bake for 45 minutes in the oven. Uncover the dish and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Cool for 5 minutes and then ENJOY!!!!

*Makes 6 servings*
271 calories
32 grams of protein
25 grams of carbs
5 grams of fat

Before going in the oven

This recipe has made excellent leftovers too! I included it in my lunch on Monday and it tasted just as good, if not better, on the second day!

Questions for you:

Anyone else have a spouse who is a picky eater or who has the opposite eating habits from you?

Have you tried the BL cookbooks? Which one is your favorite?

--Tasha